


kickflip heart

by epilogues



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Fluff, Getting Together, M/M, Skateboarding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-24
Updated: 2019-05-24
Packaged: 2020-03-13 09:29:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,120
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18938149
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/epilogues/pseuds/epilogues
Summary: “Well, Duck, it’s kind of a strange request, but - could you teach me how to skateboard?”





	kickflip heart

**Author's Note:**

> hello! this is my first taz fic, so i’m super psyched about it, and i hope you enjoy it! :D

When Duck’s phone starts ringing, he immediately assumes that something is about to go terribly wrong. The abomination is gone, sure, but . . . he grabs Beacon, ignoring his rude comments, and says, “Hello?” with no small amount of trepidation. 

“Hello, Duck!” Indrid says. “So, I was -

“Where do I need to go and how long do we have?” Duck blurts. 

“Wh- oh, no, there’s nothing wrong,” Indrid says quickly. “Sorry, I should’ve realized how this would sound. No, no, as far as I know, there’s no impending doom in Kepler right now. I, ah, I’m actually calling to ask a favor.”

Duck sighs in relief and tosses Beacon back into his cabinet. “Okay, good. Fuck. I was real scared there, but, uh, what do you need?”

“Well, Duck, it’s kind of a strange request, but - could you teach me how to skateboard?”

Duck blinks once, twice. “Uh… sure, yeah, why not?” 

“Excellent! When are you free?”

“Uh, I mean, I have the day off today, so do you want me to just come by?” 

Indrid’s grin is practically audible as he says, “Sounds great, I’ll see you in a few.” 

He hangs up after that, leaving Duck to wonder what exactly he’s gotten himself into as he grabs two boards, his helmet, and skates over to Indrid’s Winnebago. 

It’s a short ride, but it gives him just enough to 1) start planning how he’s going to teach Indrid, and 2) realize that he’s probably going to have to get physically close to Indrid, and well, that’s not going to be great for Duck’s totally-not-a-crush. 

No, it’s going to be fine, he attempts to tell himself. Just go, show Indrid the basics, and leave. Easy.

Duck resolutely ignores the mental image of himself catching Indrid before he falls, holding him close and maybe even leaning down and - well, he tries to to ignore that mental image as he picks up his board and raises his hand to knock on the door of the Winnebago. 

Indrid opens the door before Duck can actually make contact. “You’re here sooner than I expected,” he says. 

Duck shrugs. “I mean, it’s only like a ten minute ride on the board. Which, speaking of, why do you want to learn?” 

Indrid pauses, purses his lips momentarily, and shrugs. “You should come inside, we’ll have some eggnog and chat before we start.” 

“Okay,” Duck says uncertainly, wondering why Indrid avoided his question, before he drops the boards and helmet and follows Indrid inside. It’s hot as ever, despite the late winter air outside, and he takes off his jacket almost instantly. 

“Do you want nog or tea?” Indrid asks as he brushes past Duck and starts searching for mugs. 

“Uh, nog’s fine,” Duck says. “Thank you.” He accepts the mug Indrid hands him and snorts softly when he sees that it says “Point Pleasant: Home of the Mothman” on the side. 

He and Indrid sit down on the couch, Duck making sure to keep himself from accidentally bumping into Indrid or anything, and Indrid knocks a couple of his drawings from the coffee table to the ground. 

“So,” Indrid says, pausing to take a sip of eggnog. “To answer your earlier question, I just figured that I should have a way of moving quickly in case of … ah, an emergency. And flying is only really an option at night, and even then it’s not ideal, obviously, so - skateboarding. And who better to teach me than you?”

Duck blushes slightly at that. “Well, I mean, I’m not really that good, but I’m happy to help out.”

“I’m sure you’ll be a very good teacher,” Indrid says, waving his hand nonchalantly. He drains the rest of his mug and places it on the table. “Okay, you ready to go?”

“Uh, yeah, let’s go,” Duck says, standing and pulling his jacket back over his shoulders. “Do you have any knee pads or anything? I don’t want you gettin’ hurt too bad when you fall.” 

The look Indrid gives him makes him flush red with embarrassment and consider just leaving. Why the hell would the Mothman have knee pads?

“Nevermind that,” Duck says quickly. He forces himself to take a deep breath and not let his heart flutter at Indrid’s small smile. “I’m sure you’ll be fine, let’s just go.”

They head outside, Indrid grabbing a sweatshirt on his way, and Duck picks up one of the skateboards he brought. “Here, I had an extra, so you can just keep it to practice and use and shit. And, uh, I’m guessing you don’t have a helmet, so you can borrow mine.” 

Indrid takes the skateboard but wrinkles his nose at the helmet. “Duck, I’m the Mothman, I don’t need a helmet to skateboard.”

“Hey, head injuries don’t give a fuck what you are. You need to wear the helmet, in fact, I’ll go get you one if you decide you wanna keep doing this. But for today, just take this, alright?”

Indrid takes the helmet with a (totally not cute) sigh and puts it on. It’s slightly too big, but he seems to figure out how to tighten the fastenings. “Okay, can we go now?” 

“Yeah, here, we should probably go out to the street back here where it’s smoother,” Duck says, motioning for Indrid to follow him over to the only paved road by the RV park. “Alright, so it’s real important that you figure out how to get your balance first, and don’t try any tricks or nothing until then, alright?”

Indrid nods, taking the board Duck’s holding out to him and placing it on the ground. He carefully places one foot on the board, then the other, and then the board shifts slightly and he jumps off. 

“It’s gonna move,” Duck points out, hoping it’s not obvious that he’s laughing a little. “You’re doin’ fine, your foot placement was real good. You just gotta, uh, stay on for more than a second this time.” 

“Okay,” Indrid says. He holds his arms out to the sides for balance as he steps on one foot at a time, windmilling for a moment when the skateboard moves but ultimately regaining his balance.

Duck smiles and says, “Good job, ‘Drid! Alright, so next you have to work on moving. It’s pretty easy, just push off with your back foot there, keep it slow, and once you’re movin’ a bit you can put your back foot back up on the board. That make sense?” 

Indrid frowns. “I understand, but Duck, over half of the current futures involve me falling,” he says. 

“Well, yeah, you’re just starting out, it’s gonna happen eventually,” Duck explains. “But I can try and stay close so I can catch you if you want?”

That makes Indrid’s face flush a bright red that Duck is too busy mentally cursing himself to notice. Shit. Now he’s probably going to have to catch Indrid, and get close to him, and there goes that goddamn mental image again. 

“Ah… yes, that would help, I think,” Indrid finally answers. 

“Alright,” Duck says, clearing his throat awkwardly. “Okay, so I’m just gonna - “ He steps forward and motions for Indrid to follow. “I don’t think you’ll be going real fast or anything, so just kinda - uh, you can just go and I’ll just kinda, like,  walk along and just, uh, catch you if you start to fall, alright?” 

“Alright,” Indrid agrees carefully. He pushes off with his back foot just like Duck instructed and inches down the road, slowly at first, then gradually faster, until Duck is about to have to break into a light jog to keep up with him. 

Just before that happens, though, Indrid runs over a rock in the road and loses his balance, the skateboard slipping out from under his feet as he falls backwards - right into Duck’s outstretched arms. 

“Gotcha,” Duck says, hoping it sounds reassuring and not creepy. He prays that Indrid can’t hear the way his heart is pounding at the feeling of Indrid in his arms, the subtle smell of Indrid’s shampoo, the way it would be so easy to turn Indrid around and - No. “Uh, that was real good for a bit there, Indrid. I guess we should just work on, uh, turnin’ and shit so you can avoid that stuff. Um. Are you good to try again?”

Indrid nods and straightens himself up, and Duck quickly drops his arms. 

“Thanks for catching me,” Indrid says as he retrieves the skateboard. “There were a couple of futures where I just knocked you over too, so - I’m glad that didn’t happen.”

“Yeah, good thing,” Duck agrees as Indrid pushes off once more. He decidedly doesn’t think about any other possible futures that Indrid may or may not have seen. “So, um, to turn, you just gotta get your feet facing straight out, and then you just kinda lean towards whichever way you wanna turn. Just don’t lean too far, you don’t want to fall or nothing. I mean, I’ll catch you if you do, I just mean, uh, in general.”

Indrid seems daunted by whatever possible futures he sees, but he hops back up on the board and sets off again. He actually makes several smooth turns with no issue, until he gets overconfident and almost crashes into a tree by the side of the road. Duck grabs him before he does, though, and the cycle begins again. 

They practice for nearly an hour, Indrid getting fairly good at accelerating and at turning but falling roughly every ten minutes. Duck catches him every time, and every time, Duck’s heart starts beating faster and he thinks about holding Indrid closer.

After Indrid’s longest stretch without falling yet, Duck says, “We should probably head inside soon, it’s almost sunset. You did awesome, though, I’m surprised how quickly you picked all that up.”

Indrid’s cheeks turn an adorable light pink. “I think I’m just going to try one more time,” he says, and then he’s off, looking like he’s been doing this for way more than an hour. 

Duck half-heartedly jogs next to him, because he’s not really expecting Indrid to fall until, of course, he does. 

It’s a hard one too, Indrid had been going pretty fast, and then he’s off of the board and into Duck and suddenly they’re both tumbling onto the grass on the side of the road. 

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry,” Indrid says quickly, but … he makes no move to get up off of Duck. 

“It’s all good,” Duck says. He makes no move to get out from under Indrid. 

“Uh-“ he starts, at the exact same time that Indrid says, “So-“

They both stop and laugh a little, then Indrid explains, “Sorry, I wasn’t really, ah, looking ahead there. I… well, I just wanted to say thanks, Duck, you didn’t have to come all the way over here, and I really appreciate it.”

“Aw, no, of course,” Duck says. He looks up at Indrid, his heart beating at a slightly concerning rate, especially when he notices that he and Indrid are close enough that he can see Indrid’s eyes through his glasses. Most importantly, Duck can see the way Indrid’s eyes flick down to his lips for a split second. 

His heart reaches something past double time, something like kickflips and ollies and a million other things Duck never quite got the hang of. 

“Duck, I, uh -“ Indrid pauses, clearly thinking, but his eyes flick down to Duck’s lips again. “Duck, I don’t mean to be presumptuous, but I want you to know that there are two main futures that could happen right now. And I… well, now it’s down to one.”

Duck’s heart has either stopped beating entirely, or there’s just no space between beats anymore. He’s suddenly hyper aware of his hands resting on Indrid’s back, of Indrid’s hands resting up by his face, of their mingled breaths in the tiny space left between their lips. “Um-“ he says eloquently. “What, uh, what’s that future?” 

A smile flashes across Indrid’s face, and then his hands, cold but somehow not unpleasant, are cupping Duck’s face and the space between their lips is gone. 

Duck is pretty sure that this is the best moment of his entire life - Indrid’s lips are soft and surprisingly warm, and this is kind of everything Duck’s been dreaming about for a while. 

When they finally break apart, Duck’s forgotten the entire English language. 

Indrid seems to notice this and laughs, presses a light kiss to Duck’s forehead. “Can I tell you a secret?” he whispers. 

Duck nods. “Yeah, of course, ‘Drid.”

Indrid smiles again, wider this time. “I never actually cared about learning how to skateboard.”

**Author's Note:**

> thanks so much for reading!! feedback is really appreciated!
> 
> also, feel free to stop by my tumblr @duckthemundane and talk about literally anything taz related/send fic ideas! :D


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